Down the Rabbit Hole

Longer movies are not always better movies; otherwise your grandma would have a Palm d’Snore for the time she fell asleep “with the Skype on.” Fortunately, the Miami Short Film Festival, running this Saturday through December 1, cuts to the quick with more than 80 films from nearly 40 countries, all of them under 20 minutes long. You’ll see a mix of faces, such as Gael García Bernal in Zalet; Ed Asner’s domestic, squeezable face in Good Men; and plenty others you’ve never seen before but will be glad you did. For a taste of homegrown talent, check out UM film student Noah DeBonis’s Do Tell, a documentary following gay U.S. military service members stationed in Japan, or his classmate Noah Davenport’s End of Days, about the final moments before a black hole destroys Earth (not a documentary). Several people not named Noah also have films in the festival this year. Some of them have made experimental shorts that hit that 20-minute sweet spot of weird that you normally have to take a late-night Metrorail ride to find. Elon + Emmanuelle, Lost in Motion, and Hurdy Gurdy are all worth checking out. Nov. 24-Dec. 1, 2012